A/N: Hey, everybody! I've been working on this story on and off for a while now and I finally finished. In the works are Raine's point of view and a mixed shot of school the day after the fire.
I disclaim. The Talent Chronicles belong to the lovely Ms. Bischoff.
Enjoy!
):|:(
Tim's Point of View
"Can you hear me?"
"Unreal!" I exclaimed. Joel just grinned.
"Talent," he corrected.
"Talent," I agreed.
"So, you can, like, control fire?" he asked.
"Heat."
"Cool!"
"No, war‒"
The phone rang. I reached over to the cradle on my nightstand and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Tim? It's Rob Grayson. What's going on?"
"Not much," I answered. Why was Rob calling? It wasn't like we were close or anything. "I'm just hanging out with Joel."
"Joel? Bring him, too."
"Bring him where? And when did I agree to do whatever this is?"
"There's a fire at Krista Pace's old place, in the new subdivision. Joss and Dylan are inside. We need help."
"I'm on my way," I replied. Fire, I could handle.
):|:(
Fire, I could handle. Angry, stubborn girls? Not so much. Angry, stubborn Raine Jennings? Double the not.
"I'm telling you, it's too hot in there! You'll turn into Tim Toast! Just let me go in, cool things down a little, and then you can go ahead and satisfy your fat ego!" She was shouting, her face inches from mine. There was the slightest flush in her cheeks, the Raine version of beet-red. Fully Gothed out, a fierce expression on her face, Raine looked terrifying. And beautiful.
And she just insulted your ego, a voice in my head hissed. "This isn't about me! This is about saving Dylan and Joss!"
Rob interjected, "Guys, that house has been burning for a while. It's probably not to be standing much longer. We need to get them out now."
"I'm going in," I said. Before either Raine or Rob could stop me, I turned toward the house and dove in a window. The heat surrounded me like a blanket, and I felt my heart racing as I began to draw heat away from the inferno.
"Tim, you idiot!" Raine yelled through the window. "Get out or I'm coming in!"
"Raine, don't!" The fire was everywhere, and I was trying to force it towards the front of the house, away from me and the Talents gathered outside. There was a whoosh, and a piece of burning something-or-other hit me in the shoulder. I winced and did my best to ignore the pain while pushed the fire back. I'd done drills with my Talent before, but nothing like this. It was hard to breathe with all the smoke.
Suddenly, the air at my back was . . . cool? I glanced over my shoulder and saw‒ "Raine, get the hell out of here!"
"No! Tim, look at yourself! Your skin is freaking bubbling!"
"Dylan and Joss could die up there. I'll be okay."
Over the roar of the flames, I heard Raine mutter a few choice expletives. "Look, be macho later. Let's find a way upstairs so we can get out of this hellhole."
"Agreed."
We began searching the house, dodging flames and falling debris. The floor was deteriorating rapidly. The heat was so intense, it felt like my eyebrows were burning off. My Talent was stretched to the limit, but there was no way I was walking out now.
We walked through the remains of a kitchen, and I saw the stairs through the kitchen's second entrance. The only issue was, whoever had set the fire clearly didn't want anyone leaving. The stairs were in flames, and as we watched, about six steps collapsed.
"Dammit!" Raine said.
"Guys, get out of there!" Joel's voice echoed in my head.
Sorry, buddy, but no can do, I thought. "Raine, we need to get up to the second floor!"
"Give me a boost?"
"What?"
"If the stairs are burning, the ceiling won't be far behind. I'm going to freeze it, buy us some time."
I shrugged, and lifted her up. She let out a long breath, and the ceiling became coated in clear crystals. As soon as she was done, I ran to the banister and, with a jerk, pulled it loose. I used the broken-off piece of wood to make an impromptu trapdoor in the ceiling above us, breaking through some of the ice in the process. Raine had anticipated my move, and had already pushed a singed lounge chair under the hole.
"Help me with the couch!"
We struggled with the furniture for a terrifying while. The pile kept collapsing, and most of the furniture was too burned to hold our weight. I kept on drawing heat out of the air around us, to preserve both us and Raine's frozen roof.
Finally, I scrambled up to the second floor. Raine stayed below, to keep an eye on the precarious ladder. On the smoke was thick, darkening the air. It looked like a scene from a child's nightmare. Behind me, I could hear Raine coughing. I began drawing heat from the air around me, and felt as if every bit I drew off was cooking me from the inside out. Joel, if you can hear me, have Joss and Dylan get their asses downstairs!
I was choking on the smoke. "Tim!"
It was Rob. "Tim, get down, now! Joss and Dylan are coming, but you need to get out!"
Staggering, half-blinded, I turned around and all but fell through the hole in the floor. Rob and Eric were there, and together the four of us fled the burning house. We tumbled through the window, and I lay there, gasping. I looked down at my hand, and saw that it was a shade that could make a lobster jealous.
"Raine, are you okay?"
She was lying beside me, scorched and choking. "I'm‒I'm okay." I dragged myself over to her.
"Thanks for coming after me," I said.
She grinned a bit, a grin that seemed to make her face glow under the soot. "No problem." She turned to look at Heather, who was standing next to Kat, the two of them pale and gripping each other's hands tightly. "How are they?"
"Dylan's going down the hole. I think they're going to make it," she said. I sighed, relieved. I didn't want to have to explain to Gene how I had let his daughter die.
Raine's cell phone rang. The sound was so unexpected, I didn't quite recognize it for a second or two. Raine answered. "Chelsea?" She paused, listening, and then her face became even paler, if possible. She dropped the phone without hanging up, and ran back to the house.
"Raine!" a girl yelled. In an instant I was on my feet, chasing after her. As she dove through the window, I heard her yell something.
I had just scrambled in when everything exploded. A wall of flame rushed to meet me. I couldn't see Raine or Dylan or Joss, just red and orange and black.
"Raine!" I screamed, rushing toward the stairs. There was more fire, but I pushed it aside, my exhaustion forgotten as I searched for the pale girl.
"Tim, make it stop!" I heard a voice, and realized that it was Joss. I pushed aside my relief at the fact that she was alive, and kept moving forward.
"I'm trying, goddammit! Raine! Raine, where are you?"
I moved forward, closer to where I thought the pile of furniture had been. My hands were out in front of me, and the fire receded as I drew nearer. I was starting to choke on smoke again.
"Raine!"
And then I saw it. In front of me was a mound of ice, and trapped inside it with the remains of a couch were two figures. Dylan, and Raine.
Joss dropped down, sliding across the ice to land on the floor. "Tim! Get them out!" she shouted.
I clapped my hands together, shoving more of the fire away from us, and turned to the ice mound. It was a relief to release some of the heat I had trapped, and I reached out for the ice and melted it.
Raine and Dylan were collapsed on the floor, Raine on top, and neither of them were moving. I saw red.
"Raine?" Leaning forward, I dragged Raine off and shook her by the shoulders. "Raine, come on!" She couldn't be dead. We had been so close! I couldn't let her die. I couldn't. I could hear Joss shouting, but her words didn't make any sense. "Raine! Raine, wake up!" I was panicking, and I knew it. It was so hot. I was feeling dizzy, and I could tell that the fire was advancing, again.
"Tim!" Joss yelled.
"I don't think she's breathing!" I yelled back. I couldn't think straight. Raine, please, please, please, don't die on me.
"Get her outside." Joss's voice was remarkably level. "Start CPR. You know how to do that."
Start CPR. Get Raine breathing. I can do that.
There was a clatter, and Rob and Eric came rushing back through the kitchen toward us.
"I've got her," I snapped at them as I pushed out the window. I could feel the fire billowing up behind me, but I couldn't stop now. Every second I waited was a second that Raine had no air.
I dropped to the ground a ways away from the group gathered outside the house and laid Raine down on her back. I felt for a pulse. It was slower than it should be, but I wasn't sure if that came with her Talent, like her blue lips and pale, cold skin.
Not helping, Tim! CPR. Start CPR.
I started doing compressions, blowing a puff of air into her mouth after every four. One, two, three, four. Breathe. Breathe. One, two, three, four. Breathe. Breathe. "C'mon, Raine," I muttered. "Wake up!"
One, two, three—"Tim?" Raine's voice was thin and scratchy, and the best thing I'd heard in months.
"Raine! You're awake!"
"And you're all red," she said, laying an icy cold hand on my arm.
"It's nothing," I started to say, but her touch sent a jolt through my skin and suddenly my entire body was burning. The pain was everywhere. I tensed, and gritted my teeth against a string of expletives.
"It doesn't look like nothing," Raine said, sitting up and clamping her free hand around my other arm. "I can help."
I started to protest, but before I got more than two words out of my mouth, Raine leaned in and blew a thin layer of frost across my face. The relief was immediate and shocking. "Thanks," I gasped.
"Its nothing," she replied, and moved on to my left arm. She leaned in and sucked in a shocked breath. "God, Tim, your shoulder!"
I looked down, vaguely remembering the burning sensation I felt the first time I went in to the house. Whatever hit me burned through my shirt and a few layers of skin, leaving a hole the size of a half dollar that was shining pink and oozing beads of blood. "Where's my brother?" Raine demanded of someone I couldn't see.
"Taking care of Dylan and Joss," a male voice replied. Joel.
"Dammit," she muttered, then rolled up the short sleeve of my T-shirt and blew ice crystals on the wound in three short puffs.
Then her breath caught, and she began to cough and choke. She leaned over and vomited black. "Charming," I said. Raine made a two-word suggestion that ended in the word 'you'.
"Are you offering?"
Raine started to answer, and then her expression changed. "Lakota," she said, "Finally." She began coughing again.
A young boy with Raine's eyes and nose and black hair pushed through the group I hadn't noticed was watching us. He must have been her brother.
"Alright, sis," Lakota said with a wry grin, "let's see what we can do for you."
"Using the royal 'we' now, are we?" Her voice still rasped, but the tone belonged to the strong, intrepid Raine Jennings.
I released a breath I hadn't noticed I was holding. She was going to be alright.
And then everything went black.
Stay tuned!
Happy Reading,
Separate Entity